Hadley saved my life . . . and I ruined hers
Hadley’s my best friend. We share a house, our friends, a life. She knows all my secrets . . . except one. My desperate need for her is inked on my body, it’s the best I can do. But Hadley needs to hear the words . . .
Growing up as foster kids, Hadley made me feel whole-sane. And what did I do? I destroyed our chance to be together. I ran out on Hadley when I should have stayed, and something broke between us. Now I’ll do anything to fix it.
I’ll never leave her again. I won’t ever let her feel afraid again. But the more I try to protect her from my pain, the more I just make things worse. I’m terrified that if I tell her everything, she’ll never forgive me. I’m even more terrified that it may be too late to make her mine. I have to try to give her what she needs . . . it’s a debt I’m determined to repay.
I had been hearing quite a lot about this book – but it was the blurb that got t o me honestly!
It makes the blurb sound so f**ked up – the sort of miscommunication and misunderstandings between two friends (and lovers) that gets my back up and pushes me right into homicidal tendencies. This book was something exactly that yet not that. And I am going try my best to explain it!
“My life didn’t begin until I met you. I’ve loved you every day that matters. I’m so fucking in love with you and you scare the shit out of me.”
This is a pure fucked up romance – and has the maturity of a New Adult Romance – a tattooed hero with his infinite demons a manwhore at his worst and a heroine so sassy, witty and loveable that reading this book became an addiction from the first freaking page – not even kidding, I completed this book through the night, when I had work next morning!
Josh is the tattooed hero and utterly at mercy of his own demons, demons that have made sure that he literally goes on a destructive path in his life – the only one he is trying for is Hadley, his best friend, his room mate and the love of his life.
Off the top the hat, I have to tell you, that Josh is a man-whore at the beginning – and I didn’t understand why – for it was pretty sure from the beginning (and the blurb) that he was irrevocably in love with his best friend – you won’t either and it WILL frustrate you, but trust me, STICK WITH THE BOOK!
Because Josh is the kind of protective, possessive tattooed tortured hero that romance readers end up falling for – every single time.
“My Hadley didn’t live atop a pedestal. Neither of us was under any misconception that we were anything but flawed individuals with extensive backgrounds in mistakes and bad decisions. We’d both inflicted pain on each other and suffered our fair share. Despite all of that, and maybe because of it, her lips joined with mine felt like salvation. Her kiss was acceptance. Forgiveness that I felt I needed whether she agreed with me or not.”
Hadley is absolutely perfect for Josh – she is intelligent, quirky, sassy and absolutely keeps Josh on his toes. She has her own demons to contend with – and realises that both of them are in a semi – dependent relationship that is not exactly healthy!
But the moment Josh realises that Hadley is the only one for him- his playing just stops!
He makes sure that she realizes that there is only her for him now – their relationship, even when it was just friendship – even when it was the most f*cked up kind of arrangement that I have ever heard about let alone read!
“My teeth imprinted on your neck.”
“Not for all the dead presidents in your trust fund,” she answered while shoving at my chest. “I’m not wearing the carnivore’s version of a collar around my neck.”
“Fair enough. But your ass is still open for discussion, right? Because if that’s off the table…” I sat up, offering her my hand to help her stand.
“That’s forward, don’t you think? I mean you and my ass have hardly made the proper introductions and already you’re proposing a permanent partnership?”
But their interactions give you hope – hope that just maybe maybe they will get out of the kind of freaking stalemate that they have got going on!
Even with all the angst surrounding their relationship, the snark and sass of their interaction got me giggling like a school girl witnessing her OTP together – YEAH NOT KIDDING!
The fact that the author made sure that no matter what the circumstances were between the two characters, they always KNEW what they meant to each other – not many authors can pull that off, especially considering the kind of demons both had to fight with.
“Will you still love me if I have to tie you up and sit on you?”
Hadley smiled, weaving one hand into my hair and scratching her nails over my scalp. “Will you still love me if I turn into a raging bitch?”
My only issue was that the plot sometimes seemed a bit scattered – jumping from one issue to another – and just when I thought that “YESSS! THEY GET THEIR HEA”, the author went ahead to actually bring ANOTHER PLOT TWIST – that I really didn’t see coming (not to mention, completely and definitely NOT required, in my opinion!).
Still it really wasn’t that big of an irritant – honestly, and the reason is simple – Josh and Hadley’s relationship. Even with the scattered idea of the plot , it was their relationship that made me stick with the book and where I would have normally been a bit irritate, I was inwardly cheering on Josh and Hadley- they were THAT perfect!
New Adult fan? Definitely pick this one up – it *might* take a while to get into, but stick with it. The rewards are particularly immense! ❤
“How do you do that?” she asked with a sweet smile. My smile.
“Do what?”
“Be so perfect all the time. You’re not living up to your reputation as an insufferable prick.”
“I am that,” I admitted. “And I’m not perfect.” I urged her lips to mine again. “I only need to be perfect for you.”
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ .5
For The Love of Fictional Worlds 